Collective Works

Need some retrofit inspiration? Here's a quick round up from HEM Architects of some of their favourite ones. Thanks in particular to Josh Rollin for picking our Mid Terrace Dream as his favourite in this great #Retrofit roundup. https://lnkd.in/epACBez4

We've moved office, and we'd love to show off our beautiful new net zero carbon, retrofitted building. Our new Leroy House office has beautiful shared spaces, meeting rooms and a delicious café. The 1960s brutalist block has been skillfully extended and retrofitted by with a low carbon facelift that goes right to its core. We are now in the Canonbury area of Islington, close to many of our domestic clients, and within easy reach of Central London. If you would like to join us for a coffee here, you can book in a time directly via our calendly https://lnkd.in/gTm9Xb_c

"There is a roll call of achievements which is understated on his resume." Massive thanks to Alison Proctor of Boutique Capital for including our Alasdair Ben Dixon in her top influencers for 2025 list, alongside an impressive cohort of intelligent, motivated individuals who are doing right for our planet and our society. Here's what she says about Alasdair, but do click through for the rest of the list. "Working tirelessly for ethical sustainable design and spanning both UK Architects Declare and Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) the impact of Alisdair goes beyond his own practice. Collaborating with many other firms Collective Works and his colleagues introduced the Small Sites Sustainable Design Guide to help other SME developers create better homes and buildings. All the developers involved in this guide are worth following for their exemplary work ethic and practice of sustainable, net zero planet respecting policies. Co-author of RIBA Ethical Practice Guide designed to improve the industry’s grasp of ethical decision-making as it relates to the wider world, society, clients, the workplace, the profession, and the individual. Alasdair is walking the walk. " https://lnkd.in/eKrGqgrQ

With a little help from government policy, Are boomers they key to the retrofit revolution? Joe Scragg reflects on a generation who have revolution in their blood, and the desire and means to make their homes comfortable and energy efficient. They could just use a little help from the policy makers to enable them. Thanks to Ben Flatman and Building Design. for sharing. If you are thinking about retrofitting your home, let's talk about making that a reality. https://lnkd.in/dVYPNVXd

"In the winter, my sisters and I would burrow into snowbanks to build snow forts, clear ice rinks on the local pond, and leave snowmen to stand guard. We’d then retreat into our timber clapboard house to drink hot chocolate by the wood stove." Xanthe Wilkins passed her part 3 earlier this year, gaining the highest score in her cohort, and picking up the Ross Jamieson Memorial Prize along the way. Her Personal Development Appraisal ( PDA) was particularly praised, and one of her assessors Dipa Joshi described it as “a delight to read”. We agree. Here we wanted to share her reflections on how her early experiences growing up in Newfoundland have influenced not only her choice of career, but also her strong community and environmental ethos. https://lnkd.in/eB7Pcius

What does a Green Home look like? Looking through the shortlisted projects in the Homebuilding & Renovating Show Magazine Awards, is a fascinating appraisal of what is happening in domestic architecture at the moment. It embraces all aspects of self build, renovation and architect designed homes in a way that seems in line with what our residential streets look like. So it was fantastic to see our North London #retrofit, Mid Terrace Dream being highly commended in the Best Green Home category, sponsored by Internorm UK. But it was also fantastic to see how 'green' the homes were across the categories. Retrofit and low carbon design, coupled with natural materials and projects that are a positive addition to the existing buildings they extend were the norm in these awards. A 'green' home isn't obvious from the outside, but from the inside, it is likely to be more comfortable, and created with thought and attention to detail. We are proud for Mid Terrace Dream to be named as an exemplar green home. Collective Works are London based architects working across sectors to create beautiful and responsible architecture. If you have a potential project that you would like to discuss, we look forward to hearing from you.

Six things that would make a home retrofit easier and more affordable for every homeowner, accelerating retrofit in this country. As the AJ Retrofit Awards open again for the next cycle, we reflected on what would make retrofit accessible for more people, so that schemes like our Mid Terrace Dream - which Siri Zanelli and Joe Scragg presented in the 2024 awards would be less extraordinary! 🎓 Make it easier to understand 💰 Reduce VAT on refurbishment, repair and maintenance, in line with new build 📉 Part Z : Regulate embodied carbon 🌉 Bridging the green skills gap in construction 🛒 Better availability of grants for retrofit products and green technologies 🔌 Greater adoption of green technology and low carbon materials will contribute to lowering their cost. click through to our blog for more detail. https://lnkd.in/ew8iAFGG

At its most basic, the #PrincipalDesigner role is about compliance. Khuzema Hussain shares some thoughts on how an architect - with their training in coordination, user needs, and construction - can offer much more to a project in their fulfilment of the PD role. Collective Works has taken training on the legislation changes and on designing with safety in mind. We have assisted the NHS, hospitality clients and a UK yoga franchise with their projects. We have not only fulfulled the PD duty, but offered additional design assistance including advice during construction. Get in touch if you are looking for help from a Principal Designer. https://lnkd.in/eNGfDekr

Great day at the inaugural Property Week ESG Edge Conference and Awards in London! Alasdair Ben Dixon and Jenny Gnadl joined discussions on the evolving ESG landscape in real estate, emphasising both opportunities and the mounting compliance challenges. With Alasdair up for two awards, they were encouraged by industry insights, BUT left questioning if ESG’s momentum is sustainable, especially given recent critiques. While we are motivated to keep pushing the boundaries in sustainable property management, some argue that ESG needs a sharper edge if it’s to drive real impact. Particularly good talks from Marylis Ramos / Savills Earth Advisory, Cathy Myatt / Chancerygate, Arun Thaneja / Winvic Construction Ltd, Linda Thiel / White Arkitekter, Tom Jordan / Barr Gazetas, Ness Scott / Greencore Homes, Alan Carter / The Land Trust, Jessica Pilz / Fiera Capital

Health is the state of being free from illness or injury. But being ‘healthy’ is about much more. We teamed up with our friends at Avanti Architects for a joint CPD session to talk about #healthcare architecture. We took the opportunity to share projects that connect traditional healthcare settings with the communities they serve. The projects demonstrate how a healthcentre can provide so much more than a GP surgery. The themes for the day were colocation and engagement, with sustainability, future flexibility and connection to community as underlying commitments to deliver projects that are relevant, long life and fit for purpose. Alasdair Ben Dixon from Collective Works presented three social prescribing projects as well as our scheme for The Quiet Room at North Middlesex Hospital. Adrian Miles and Andrew McKeown from Avanti Architects reciprocated with four healthcare projects that bring together services that can improve community health. Social prescribing can help reduce the load on GPs by 20% by treating the source of issues before symptoms become medical. Flourish, the social prescribing hub at Victoria Health Centre, colocates charities within an existing community health centre. GPs are then able to refer patients with broader societal health needs via a link worker to charities such as CAB, Mind, etc, who can advise, support and help to mitigate the issues that are leading to poor health, resulting in preventative healthcare.   Grove Wellbeing Centre in Belfast, by Avanti Architects colocates complementary leisure, health and education services. The swimming pool and leisure centre, library and health centre are all accessed from one central entrance and atrium, as a focal point for the community. Together, these services can improve community health - promoting fitness and movement, community groups, education as well as physical health. With change however, often comes resistance. Engagement is key to the success of any public or healthcare project, from stakeholders to end users. When we started working on the Social Prescribing projects, we took our design toolkit of colour, biophilia and furniture. However, having now delivered the three schemes, our big takeaway is that the most important tools we brought to these healthcare schemes as a design team were the ability to listen, engage across a wide user group and have the tenacity to take the projects over the line. Engagement at the Portadown Health and Care Centre in County Armagh emphasised core design work for Avanti Architects. Key to making visits to the Healthcentre as stress free and easy as possible were ensuring that the centre was easy – and intuitive – to navigate, naturally lit, with views out, and that the acoustics were calm. Healthcare starts in the community. Expert input – from patients and professionals alike – is vital to the success of every kind of healthcare space.